What To Do This Weekend, March 6-9

Lights! Camera! Fashion! is back for a second year. Shop designer clothes donated by DC’s stylish women (yes, they really exist—this town isn’t quite the bastion of ill-fitting Ann Taylor like the rest of the world might believe it is) and feel good about spending: Stone Soup Films does pro-bono production work on promotional films for DC nonprofits. Meaning: looking good never felt so good.

Five courses from RFD’s super-solid kitchen, known for its elevated bar food, will be paired with five tastings from Colorado’s Oskar Blues Brewery. Cheese and charcuterie, melon and prosciutto salad, crawfish and andouille gumbo, burgers, and a flourless chocolate torte will meet their match in longstanding favorites (Dale’s Pale Ale, Ten Fidy Russian Imperial Stout) and lesser-known suds (G’Knight Imperial Red Ale, Gubna Imperial IPA). Pro-tip: Be sure to savor the flavors – none of the offered beverages will be below six percent ABV.

The sometimes-embattled Artisphere might find its reinvention in comics and illustration. It’s hosted the DC Conspiracy comics collective, and is today home to the inaugural Smudge! Expo, a “new comics arts expo meant to showcase independent comics and inspire attendees to become storytellers themselves.” The national heavy-hitters of SPX, Smudge exhibitors are not, but the several dozen displaying their work include the well-respected Matt Dembicki, the dreamy G.E. Gallas, and the utterly charming Rachel Comics.

The National Gallery of Art’s routine Sunday repertory screenings gets a little throwback-weird today, when it will show selections of videos produced by the Videofreex collective. Active between 1969 and 1978, the Freex used Portapaks— battery-powered, self-contained, single-operator analog videotape recording systems with instantaneous playback—to pioneer the recording of images and sound for community television, activist causes, and other alternative channels (think pirate TV stations). This screening includes Videofreex-conducted interviews with Fred Hampton of the Black Panthers and Youth International Party organizer Abbie Hoffman, and Freex members Parry Tesdale and Skip Blumberg will be present for discussion.